Category

1109 South Pacific Coast HWY. Redondo Beach, CA 90277. (310) 316 - 1580.

Appetizer: Fried Calimari

The fried Calimari was an okay start. It isn’t a local exclusive that’s worth dying for. It was about the most unique thing on their menu of appetizers so I choose to get it. I was expecting it to have a more distinct taste. Unfortunately, with, or without the sauce, it’s nothing special. Just go to your local supermarket.

Main Course: Teriyaki Salmon Dinner

Most places seem to have an exclusive salmon dish, so I choose to order this to try out. I figured hey the Salmon you get at your local supermarket is boneless, taste great, and isn’t that expensive. Disappointment sucks. First off, it was $10.50 for a small thin slab of salmon, a small bowl of shrimp rice, some nasty broccoli, and lots of teriyaki sauce. White rice tasted better than the fried rice. The broccoli would’ve tasted better raw. The salmon was full of small and tremendously irritating bones that kept stabbing me. It spent more time trying to get the bones out of my mouth than I did eat. The only thing that kept me eating was the fact that I was hungry.

Dennis’s Main Course: Dearest Crab

This item was about 10$ and was listed under the house specials. It sounded pretty good compared to the other items on the menu and I’ve been dying for some good crab lately. Unfortunately, I was greatly disappointed. The way the crab was prepared was not how I expected. They served the crab mixed with pork and shrimp but into weird fried balls. The taste of this meatball was that of crabcake or the insides of an eggroll but not as good. I got so tired of eating this that I refused to finish my meal. I only ate one out of the two crab meatballs because I was afraid that I was going to get sick.

I’ve asked the other guests among our group and not one person had a good thing to say, except for Bao, who said the fried duck was good. On another note, Jimmy says that our experience was not well because of the manner in which we ate. Like other Thai and asian restaurants, everybody can order a different entree but everybody usually shares from each other so that there is a large variety. Nobody would get bored of the flavor, because they do serve in large portions, and the environment and mood would change. The only reason we did not eat family-style was because this was somewhat of a formal dinner. On a good note, the Thai Tea was good.

Dessert:
Ugh, god spare me.

Taste: 3/10
Presentation: 2/5
Service: 3/5
Total: 8/20

here are some additional photos of the appetizers and entrees from the other guests.

926 Broxton Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90024

It was about 11PM and we were pretty bored, so we decided to take a stroll around town for some ice cream sandwiches. When we first arrived at Diddy Riese, there was a huge line of people out the door. It didn’t take long for us to finally get into the store and order something because the service was pretty fast.

Everything on their menu was extremely cheap! You could get anything from one cookie($0.35), 3 cookies($1.00), to a dozen cookies($3.75), and a scoop of ice cream($1.00) or even 2 scoops of ice cream($1.50), if you feel like splurging! They have many different kinds of cookies like the chocolate chip, oatmeal raisen, macadamia nuts & white chocolate, white chocolate, and sugar cookie. Their cookies are made fresh and they use only all natural ingredients. they use dreyers ice cream and they have about 10-12 different flavors.

I got an ice cream sandwich($1.25) and you get to choose two cookies and your ice cream flavor. I didn’t feel like getting anything too crazy, so I stuck with two chocolate chip cookies and vanilla ice cream. The cookies were really soft and you could tell they were fresh. The ice cream wasn’t too cold, so it went really well with the soft cookies YUM! The others were more daring than I was and they chose mixtures like mint chocolate chip ice cream in between a sugar cookie and a white chocolate macadamia cookie. So if you ever have late night cravings for something sweet, head to Diddy Riese because they stop selling at 1AM.

Taste: 8/10

55 North Cienega Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA 90211
http://www.thestinkingrose.com/

 
After finding out that we were going to go to a garlic restaurant, I got really excited because I’ve never had an all garlic meal before. We did a little research on it and found out that The Stinking Rose was rated 8th in Beverly Hills. As we arrived in the parking lot, we were greeted by their valet attendants. The valet was only $3.50, which is not bad considering that we didn’t have to find parking on Beverly Hills. Once we entered the restaurant you can see that there wasn’t a single empty wall space because it was all decorated with black and white pictures. While the hostess was guiding the way to our table, I noticed that they had a bar and I remembered that they make garlic martinis. Unfortunately I wasn’t daring enough to try it out, but maybe next time.

                                  
 
As soon as we were seated, our waitress brought us the house-baked focaccia bread. The bread was really soft and warm and boy were they good! We had a choice of either dipping the bread with their garlic infused olive oil or the mixture of garlic, cilantro and olive oil spread. I found the garlic spread to be a little too strong for me and a little does really go a long way. We decided that we would start off with their “Bagna Calda($4.95)” which is a whole bunch of garlic cloves roasted in extra virgin olive, butter, and anchovies; that you use to spread over the focaccia bread. This was my favorite accompaniment to the focaccia bread because it was like a burst of creamy garlic in your mouth without the bite. I really should learn control because I had way too many of the focaccia and bagna calda.

The first thing that came out was Cindy’s “Combo Mussels, Shrimp, and Crab Skillet ($34.95)” and that thing was quite a sight. The skillet came out screaming hot and the waiter doused some kind of sauce over it and you could see the steam rise from it while the sauce sizzled. there was a choice between the melted butter or a crab infused melted butter sauce for dipping(not exactly sure if it was crab infused, but it tasted like it). The dish is kind of pricey, but so worth it! It is something that should be shared and if you have a big party, it could be your appetizer.

I really commend Mike for being daring enough to order the “Roasted Rabbit” with olives and an extra virgin olive oil garlic sauce($19.95). It came with a side of garlic pesto mashed potatoes. You can definitely taste the basil and garlic in the mashed potatoes that goes really well with a hardy dish like roasted rabbit. It tasted like chicken and if no one told me it was rabbit, I would have probably guessed it to be chicken. The meat was kind of tough for me, so I didn’t really like it too much.

I just really love seafood and majority of the time I always end up ordering something that comes from the sea! I chose the “Halibut” with cherry tomatoes, roasted garlic, and olives($21.95). It came with a side of acini di pepe pasta, roasted tomatoes & snap peas in a lemon butter sauce. I really enjoyed this dish because I got to experiment with all the different flavors. I tried different combinations of the fish with the olives, cherry tomatoes, garlic, and pasta. The best combination for me was a little bit of fish and olives. The saltiness of the olives blended really well with the fish. The acini di pepe pasta was just amazing and the lemon butter sauce was melt in your mouth goodness. There wasn’t even a piece of pasta left on the dish after I was done with it!

At the end of the meal the waiter brought out their “Gilroy’s Famous Garlic Ice Cream” with caramel mole sauce and a candle on top because it was Cindy’s birthday. I don’t know if it was because of all the garlic we ate from our meal, but I could really taste the garlic in the ice cream. I didn’t like it too much; however everyone at the table really enjoyed it. They gave us mints with our check, but I don’t think 1 or 2 mints is going to help cover up the garlic smell. This is a definitely a restaurant everyone should try at least once.

I really wish I could comment of everything we ordered, but I didn’t get a chance to taste everything. Here are pictures of them, so that you may see what kind of dishes they have.
 
Silence of the Lamb Shank($18.95)               BBQ Garlic Chicken Pizzette($8.75)
What an awesome name!
 
Niman ranch Porterhouse                                Garlic Braise Boneless Short Rib($18.95)
Pork Chop($19.95)  

Taste: 8/10
Service: 4/5
Atmosphere: 4/5
Total: 16/20

1118 Westwood Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90023
http://www.noodleplanet.com/

We decided to go to LA to visit our friend Cindy for her birthday. She suggested for us to try Noodle Planet because they had a wide selection of noodle dishes. The place is about a 5 minute walk from the UCLA campus. From the outside the place looked like it would be a small restaurant, but once I walked inside I found it to be very spacious. They offer Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and Vietnamese dishes. The menu was well organized and the dishes were listed by which region they originated from. They had everything from noodle soups to pan fry dishes and they even had pasta. They also have rice dishes for those whom don’t want noodles. Spicy dishes are designated with an asterisk next to the menu item.

(Thai Pan Fry) - Rice noodles stir fried with chicken, squid, green onions, and eggs. The noodles weren’t overcooked and still had a nice consistency to them. The dish was well seasoned, so you so you won’t be needing any soy sauce for this.

(Seafood Pad See-Ew) - Rice noodles pan fried with Chinese broccoli, eggs, black soy sauce, and a combination of seafood. The seafood that was in the dish was mostly shrimpy, squid and imitation crab. This was my favorite pan fried dish because it wasn’t too saucy and yet it wasn’t too dry. The black soy sauce cooked with the seafood gave it a nice rich sauce.

(Laht Nah) - Rice noodles topped with Chinese broccoli and a choice of beef, chicken or pork in gravy. You have to be careful with this dish because the green chili peppers are very deceiving and easily mistaken to be a piece of bell pepper or green bean. Many of us had bitten into the pepper without knowing and had to cool off our mouths with water. I thought the dish was a bit too saucy for my liking.

(Udon Noodle Soup) - Japanese fish cake, pork slices, tokfu, black mushroom, seaweed, and udon noodles. The taste of the broth wasn’t anything too special and It just didn’t stand out to me. They forgot to add the black mushrooms to my soup. I think they might have overcooked the fish cake a little because the texture was a lot tougher and rubbery than usual. I will stick to the pan fry dishes next time I come here.

The price of their dishes range from 5 to 7 dollars which is really affordable for the amount of food you are getting. If you are going to order a pan fry dish, I reccomend you have someone to share. It’s a lot of food for one person to handle, unless you eat a lot. If I lived in LA, I would probably be a regular just so I could try everything on their menu.

Taste: 7/10
Service: 3/5
Presentation: 2/5
Total: 12/20

656 N Virgil Ave, Silverlake, CA. (323) 664-7723

7953 Santa Monica Blvd, West Hollywood, CA. (323) 848-7700

http://www.theoriginalchachacha.com/

Ok, so… although I love the Cha Cha Cha in West Hollywood, it was not The Fast and the Furious Cha Cha Cha, so here we go again! Don’t worry though, this time we had brunch…

Mimosas ($5.50 each)

Jenn’s Mambo Passion ($6.25) - fresh seasonal fruit platter with passion fruit juice.

Lisa’s Huevos al Gusto ($6.50) with eggs sunnyside up, grilled chicken sausage, rice, salsa, beans, fruit, and plantains.

Linh’s Coke ($1.95) and Steak and Eggs ($12.25) - grilled New York steak and two fried eggs with salsa criolla, rice, beans, fruit, and plantains.

My Huevos Al Gusto ($6.50) with scrambled eggs, grilled chicken sausage, rice, salsa, beans, fruit, and plantains. The chicken sausage was excellent! It had a little bit of a spicy kick to it… Overall, it was a nice hearty meal and a great value, too!

Just like the other location, this restaurant was very colorful… from the tablecloths to the little banana lights on the wall to the red French doors.

And the staff is great. They were very helpful in explaining to me that the cabinet with the painted sun from the movie that I was looking for was… alas, no more. It broke and they got rid of it.

Anyway, take a chance on Cha Cha Cha and maybe you’ll get a chance to peel out of the parking lot like Mia =)

Taste: 9/10
Presentation: 3/5
Service: 5/5
Total: 17/20